Winger and Beavis and Butt-Head creator make good on Stewart

One of the best examples for polar opposites in animated comedy came from Beavis and Butt-Head. For every Beavis and Butthead moment that would happen during the course of the episode, you would have wet-blankets like Daria and Stewart to kind of keep the insanity grounded and more relatable to the target audience.

The best way creator Mike Judge sought to achieve this was to put a Winger T-shirt on Stewart to help counteract the Metallica-AC/DC combo that our titular characters had. With Beavis and Butt-Head, you certainly had the kids representing some of the best in heavy metal music featuring Metallica and AC/DC, bands that would go on to influence some of the best in the industry today like Lamb of God, Testament, and more. With Winger, we got the stereotypical representation of GLAM music that every thrash band wanted to kick the shit out of. That battle was fought on a few different fronts, for if you had a chance to check out Metallica’s ”Nothing Else Matters” video you would certainly notice Lars Ulrich flinging a dart at a Winger poster.

Since then, Kip Winger would constantly challenge Metallica to battles of the bands, but as it turns out the lead singer was able to kind of shrug off Mike Judge’s pokes and even take them like a champ. Metal Injection recently noted a recent interview with Kip where he was asked about this very same thing:

I heard you recently made peace with Mike Judge and put some water under the bridge.
Totally true. When they did the Beavis & Butthead remake I found Mike and told him I wanted to clear the air. I never tried to sue MTV or Mike, I never had a problem with the cartoon. I mean, it was David and Goliath, really. There was nothing you could do but take it like a man. It certainly didn’t help us, I’ll tell you that. But it was a funny show and Mike’s a funny guy.

I read somewhere that it was nothing personal — they just couldn’t find other logos for Stewart that worked.
Winger was a band that was popular for some of the wrong reasons, man. So we ended up on the show. I don’t believe there was any malicious intent. We exchanged some emails; Mike is a very nice guy, no hard feelings. I was hoping maybe he’d give me a voice-over role in the new cartoon though.

Unfortunately for Kip, the opportunity to voice a cameo on Beavis and Butt-Head probably won’t happen anytime soon as show creator Mike Judge was recently on The Howard Stern Show and noted that the fate of the series was in MTV’s hands and we just have to grin and bear it.